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Nevermind catapulted Nirvana from relative obscurity to the heights of commercial and critical success virtually overnight. The album brought significant attention to the Seattle-based grunge movement which dominated throughout the majority of the 90s. In the wake of its success, other Seattle bands such as Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains would go on to have hit albums as well, and other alternative rock artists were suddenly being played on the radio and courted by record labels.

Nevermind was produced by Butch Vig and mixed by Andy Wallace, who crafted the band's distorted guitars, pounding drums, rumbling bass and cathartic vocals into an album which appealed to a wide audience, and set the standard for rock music throughout the 1990s. Singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain would later express dissatisfaction with the album's "slick", radio-friendly production, but also admitted in Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography, Come as You Are, that listening to the album sometimes moved him to tears.

Nevermind reached #1 on Billboard Music Chart's Top 200 albums and the Heatseekers chart. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. In 2004, it was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Nevermind was listed #17 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, despite only getting four stars out of five when this magazine reviewed it originally in 1991.

Nevermind was certified gold and platinum by the RIAA on November 27, 1991.

In the U.S., the album was released on Sub Pop (Catalog: SP-34). The first 1,000 copies were pressed on white vinyl, the next 2,000 on black vinyl, and all subsequent pressings were on assorted colored vinyl. The first 3,000 copies of the record came with a poster, featuring Jason Everman.

In the UK the record was released via Tupelo Records (Catalog: TUPLP6), and later Geffen Records (Catalog:GEF-24433). The first 300 Tupelo copies were pressed on white vinyl, the next 2,000 copies were on dark green vinyl.

In Australia the LP was released on Waterfront Records [1](DAMP114) and later issued on various colored covers and colored vinyl before it was deleted in late 1992.

Sub Pop released a remastered version of the album on CD and cassette in April 1992.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released as Nevermind's first single in September 1991. The single features "Drain You," "Even in His Youth" and "Aneurysm" as b-sides. The song, and its accompanying music video depicting a high school pep rally gone awry, played a significant role in the album's surprising success.

The second single was for "Come as You Are," and features "Endless, Nameless" and live versions of "Drain You" and "School" as b-sides. It was released in March 1992. The third single was for "Lithium," and was released in July 1992. It features a live version of "Been a Son," as well as "Curmudgeon" and "D-7," as b-sides. Nevermind's fourth and final single was for "In Bloom," released in November 1992 and featuring live versions of "Sliver" and "Polly" as b-sides.

The infamous Nevermind album cover features a nude baby (Spencer Elden) swimming towards a dollar attached to a fishing hook. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with drummer Dave Grohl. The fishhook and bill were also Cobain's idea, and were superimposed later. The Serial Number on the dollar bill is "L 94998746 B."

Geffen prepared an alternate cover without the penis, as they were afraid that it would offend people, but decided to not release this cover, as Cobain made it clear that all he would accept was a sticker over the penis that read "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile." The alternate cover is featured in Come As You Are.

Upon Nevermind's release, it was expected that if everyone involved "worked really hard", the record could be certified gold (500,000 copies sold) after it had been out for approximately a year. However, by January 1992, Nevermind was selling about 300,000 copies a week. The album was certified gold and platinum on November 27, 1991, slightly over a month after its release. It was certified diamond on March 24, 1999. Worldwide, sales figures were 25.6 million in April 2007